Starved, disabled girl was failed at every turn - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

UKking · 08-08-2008, 09:22 AM

Warning - just the summary of Danieal's death is one of the worst things I have read. I did not know what I was getting into when I started looking into this.

Quote:

Starved, disabled girl was failed at every turn

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - For days before Danieal Kelly died in a fetid, airless room - made stifling hot by a midsummer heat wave - the bedridden teenager begged for something to drink until she could muster only one word: water.

Unable to help herself because of her cerebral palsy, she wasted away from malnutrition and maggot-infested bedsores that ate her flesh. She died alone on a putrid mattress in her mother's home, the floor covered in feces. She was 14 but weighed just 42 pounds.

The nightmare of forced starvation and infection that killed Danieal while she was under the protection of the city's human services agency is documented in a 258-page grand jury report released this week that charges nine people - her parents, four social workers and three family friends - in her ghastly death.

The report describes a mother, Andrea Kelly, who was embarrassed by her disabled daughter and didn't want to touch her, take her out in public, change her diapers or make sure she had enough fluids. It portrays Daniel Kelly, the father who once had custody of Danieal, as having no interest in raising her.

And it accuses the city Department of Human Services of being "uncaring and incompetent."

"It was this indifference that helped kill Danieal Kelly," an angry District Attorney Lynne Abraham said. "How is it possible for this to have happened?"

The report should "outrage the entire Philadelphia community" and bring about "earth-shattering, cataclysmic changes" at the Department of Human Services, Abraham said.

Andrea Kelly, 39, the only defendant charged with murder, was ordered held Friday without bail. The social workers - suspected of falsifying home visits and progress reports in the case - face charges ranging from child endangerment to involuntary manslaughter. The family friends are accused of lying to the grand jury about the girl's condition before her death.

None of the lawyers for any of the defendants had any immediate comment.

Human Services Commissioner Anne Marie Ambrose, in office only a month, said Thursday that she is intent on improving child safety and worker accountability in an agency that has repeatedly been accused of failing to protect children.

Late Friday, the city announced the resignation of Assistant Health Commissioner Carmen Paris. The grand jury had accused Paris of interfering in the investigation of the girl's death while she was acting health commissioner, but found insufficient evidence to charge her with obstruction of justice.

The report on Danieal's death in August 2006 documents a downward spiral from the early years that she spent in Arizona with her father and his girlfriend.

Though Danieal attended special-needs classes only sporadically, a school report described her as an active learner and "one of the sweetest students ever enrolled in this program." But allegations of parental neglect soon surfaced, and following Daniel Kelly's breakup with his girlfriend in 2001, Danieal never again attended school.

Daniel Kelly and his children moved to Philadelphia in 2003. He eventually asked his estranged wife to move in, even though she had several other children and he knew she was incapable of caring for Danieal, authorities say. He then moved out.

"Daniel Kelly was well aware what deserting his daughter meant to her safety and welfare," the grand jury report said. "He just did not care."

The Department of Human Services received at least five reports of Danieal being mistreated between 2003 and 2005. All described a "helpless child sitting unattended, unkempt and unwashed, in a small stroller in her own urine and feces," her screams ignored by her mother, the grand jury report said. The stroller, which served as a wheelchair, apparently never left the house.

Agency employee Dana Poindexter, assigned to investigate, also ignored Danieal, authorities say. Already having been suspended after a 3-week-old baby died on his watch in 2002, Poindexter continued his "slovenly, neglectful and dangerously reckless work habits" after being assigned the Kelly case, the grand jury said. He did not file a single report, authorities said.

The Kellys finally were assigned help from a private agency in 2005. Employee Julius Murray was required to visit the family twice a week, but authorities believe he may have come to the house only once - to have Andrea Kelly sign predated forms attesting to future visits.

The grand jury report said Laura Sommerer, a city social worker, failed to hold the now-defunct company accountable when, months later, Danieal still was not enrolled in school or receiving medical care.

And after Danieal died, authorities say, company director Mickal Kamuvaka held a "forgery fest" in her office where she had employees "concoct almost a year's worth of false progress reports."

But authorities say Andrea Kelly, whose other children are now in foster care, is primarily responsible for her daughter's death.

The report said she was confronted repeatedly by her own mother, uncle, friends and even two of her sons about Danieal's deteriorating health. She would lie or put them off by saying she would seek help, or banish them from the house, authorities say.

In the meantime, the report said, she entertained friends, attended classes and fed her other children.

"This behavior indicates that Andrea Kelly did not merely allow Danieal to die," the report said. "She may have even wanted her disabled daughter to die."

When an ambulance responded to a 911 call for Danieal on Aug. 4, 2006, the girl had been dead for several hours. Authorities said she was so emaciated she looked like the victim of a concentration camp.

She had been lying on the filthy mattress for so long that her body outline was imprinted on it.

I have no clue how organizations of social workers operate, but I held the assumption that people seek out those positions mostly for desire to want to help other people. They're there because they care, I assumed. And in that manner, I would never have considered that those people could possibly look at their job in such a detached, disdainful manner. If they weren't interested, they'd be in greener pastures, right?
But... No? I am utterly confused as to how the people of such a supposedly benevolent institution could instead be so.... malign. I'm deeply confused over this. Maybe I'm misunderstanding.

Miss Mango · 08-08-2008, 01:33 PM

Im speechless.
I just dont understand people sometimes.
I really dont...

Willravel · 08-08-2008, 01:57 PM

Speaking dispassionately for a moment, there are unhealthy and incapable people in every walk of life from paperboy to president, and some of them have very important responsibilities that mean real consequences for their inability and/or mental/emotional illness. While what happened is truly unspeakable, my hope is that it will help to bring to light the abuses of others in similar positions of responsibility.

Here's another idea: it's too difficult to fire people in the publicly funded mental health/child welfare industry(ies). At the last organization my mother worked for (publicly funded child crisis organization), an individual put the life of one of the children she was responsible for in direct and clear danger, and this was after repeatedly breaking rules and doing serious emotional damage to other children. They couldn't fire her because they were concerned about being taken to court because the color of her skin means that statistically she was more likely to win if the case appeared before a jury. Dana Poindexter, the DHS employee, was likely too difficult to fire and that fact means that this inability to fire issue was and is directly responsible for his continued failures. I'm all for workers rights, I love unions and worker organization because I feel it can be a tool to level the playing field and can prevent management from abusing workers, but when it's impossible to fire someone for gross incompetence then there has been a serious failure. Dana Poindexter should have been fired long before being assigned to dear Danieal.

Ayashe · 08-08-2008, 02:45 PM

That is just horrific. I do not have the words to express how awful this was.

Hyacinthe · 08-09-2008, 01:11 AM

Gods this story hits close to home. Sometimes I just don't understand people how could anyone stand by and let a little girl starve to death, how could her mother have left her like that I just don't get it. I don't understand how people can do things like this to one another and still look thmself in the mirror.

kate jack · 08-10-2008, 09:15 AM

My god, that's absolutely terrible! Some people are just disgusting.

Miss Mango · 08-12-2008, 02:52 PM

Parents of starved disabled daughter suing city

MyFox Philadelphia | Fox 29 News | WTXF

Bill O'Rights · 08-13-2008, 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Miss Mango

Parents of starved disabled daughter suing city

MyFox Philadelphia | Fox 29 News | WTXF

To quote Mayor Michael Nutter;

Quote:

"It's obscene. It's absurd. It is disgusting," Nutter said Tuesday.

That's an extreme understatement.

Can anyone come up with a plausible reason why these people, and their attorney, shouldn't just be taken out into a field and shot?

Wait...before you answer that...check out the Grand Jury Indictment. But, before you do, be forewarned that there are some very disturbing images. Remember some of those old holocaust images? Yeah...that disturbing.
http://media.myfoxphilly.com/grandjury.pdf

Quote:

Their lawyers, one of whom is a Radnor school board member, said the parents are not trying to benefit from this; they're doing it for their children.

Oh...bullshit!
If ever there was a reason for a good old fashioned lynching...

Quote:

Nutter said the city will go after every dime it spends defending itself in this "insane" lawsuit.

Not that the city will ever see a cent of it. The taxpayers of Philadelphia will ultimately have to absorb that cost.
Seriously though, the attorney, Brian Lindenberg, should be disbarred.

Then shot and left to rot with his clients.

genuinegirly · 08-13-2008, 09:09 AM

Incredibly disturbing. The social workers who falsified reports need to be blacklisted.

Poppinjay · 08-13-2008, 09:21 AM

I've never been one for lawyer hate. I've always figured everybody needs a defender. That was until I started getting action reports from the Virginia Bar.

This is disgusting. The signing of pre-dated forms, the lack of accountability, and now they sue.

You know what? Not firing somebody because they might sue will cost you more, eventually. For supervisors not to realize that is insane. Keep worthless employees, get sued for their incompetence.

08-09-2008, 01:11 AM	#5 (permalink)
Hyacinthe Psycho Location: Australia	Gods this story hits close to home. Sometimes I just don't understand people how could anyone stand by and let a little girl starve to death, how could her mother have left her like that I just don't get it. I don't understand how people can do things like this to one another and still look thmself in the mirror. __________________ "I want to be remembered as the girl who always smiles even when her heart is broken... and the one that could brighten up your day even if she couldnt brighten her own" "Her emotions were clear waters. You could see the scarring and pockmarks at the bottom of the pool, but it was just a part of her landscape – the consequences of others’ actions in which she claimed no part."

08-13-2008, 09:09 AM	#9 (permalink)
genuinegirly Eat your vegetables Super Moderator Location: Arabidopsis-ville	Incredibly disturbing. The social workers who falsified reports need to be blacklisted. __________________ "Sometimes I have to remember that things are brought to me for a reason, either for my own lessons or for the benefit of others." Cynthetiq "violence is no more or less real than non-violence." roachboy

08-13-2008, 09:21 AM	#10 (permalink)
Poppinjay You had me at hello Location: DC/Coastal VA	I've never been one for lawyer hate. I've always figured everybody needs a defender. That was until I started getting action reports from the Virginia Bar. This is disgusting. The signing of pre-dated forms, the lack of accountability, and now they sue. You know what? Not firing somebody because they might sue will cost you more, eventually. For supervisors not to realize that is insane. Keep worthless employees, get sued for their incompetence. __________________ I think the Apocalypse is happening all around us. We go on eating desserts and watching TV. I know I do. I wish we were more capable of sustained passion and sustained resistance. We should be screaming and what we do is gossip. -Lydia Millet

08-08-2008, 01:33 PM	#2 (permalink)
Miss Mango Psycho	Im speechless. I just dont understand people sometimes. I really dont...

08-08-2008, 01:57 PM	#3 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	Speaking dispassionately for a moment, there are unhealthy and incapable people in every walk of life from paperboy to president, and some of them have very important responsibilities that mean real consequences for their inability and/or mental/emotional illness. While what happened is truly unspeakable, my hope is that it will help to bring to light the abuses of others in similar positions of responsibility. Here's another idea: it's too difficult to fire people in the publicly funded mental health/child welfare industry(ies). At the last organization my mother worked for (publicly funded child crisis organization), an individual put the life of one of the children she was responsible for in direct and clear danger, and this was after repeatedly breaking rules and doing serious emotional damage to other children. They couldn't fire her because they were concerned about being taken to court because the color of her skin means that statistically she was more likely to win if the case appeared before a jury. Dana Poindexter, the DHS employee, was likely too difficult to fire and that fact means that this inability to fire issue was and is directly responsible for his continued failures. I'm all for workers rights, I love unions and worker organization because I feel it can be a tool to level the playing field and can prevent management from abusing workers, but when it's impossible to fire someone for gross incompetence then there has been a serious failure. Dana Poindexter should have been fired long before being assigned to dear Danieal.

08-08-2008, 02:45 PM	#4 (permalink)
Ayashe Psycho	That is just horrific. I do not have the words to express how awful this was.

08-10-2008, 09:15 AM	#6 (permalink)
kate jack Tilted	My god, that's absolutely terrible! Some people are just disgusting.

08-12-2008, 02:52 PM	#7 (permalink)
Miss Mango Psycho	Parents of starved disabled daughter suing city MyFox Philadelphia \| Fox 29 News \| WTXF